Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with abduction of infants from hospitals, as an example.
Over 4.2 million births take place at approximately 3,500 birthing facilities in the United States each year. Based upon a study of cases by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) between 1983 and 1992, the best estimate for the nationwide incidents of successful infant abductions, by non-family members, is between 12 and 18 annually. Because there is no reporting requirement or mandated centralized collection of data for infant abduction cases, it is likely that the actual number of cases is even higher. While the crime of infant abduction may not be of epidemic proportion, abductions by non-family members of infants from hospitals is emotionally devastating for the victim's parents and is clearly a subject of concern for nurses, hospitals, law enforcement as well as the NCMEC.
The majority of the infants that are abducted annually have been taken from hospitals. The abductions typically have no boundaries in terms of location or size of the hospital, or of race, sex or socioeconomic background of the infant. The typical hospital abduction case involves an unknown abductor impersonating a nurse, hospital employee, volunteer or relative in order to gain access to an infant. The obstetrics unit is typically open and inviting. It can be filled with medical and nursing staff, visitors, students, volunteers and participants in parenting and newborn care classes. The number of new and changing faces on the unit is high, thus making the unit an area where a stranger is unlikely to be noticed.
Because there is generally easier access to a patient's room than to a newborn nursery and because a newborn infant spends increasingly more time with the mother rather than in the traditional nursery setting, most abductors obtain access to the infant directly from the mother's arms. In fact, statistics from the NCMEC study indicate that nearly two-thirds of the infants abducted from a hospital were abducted from the mother's room.
While infant abductions are usually carried out by women who are not criminally sophisticated, these crimes are not committed by the stereotypical stranger. In most cases, the offenders make themselves known and achieve some degree of familiarity with the hospital personnel, procedures and the victim's parents. The abductor usually visits the nursery unit for several days before the abduction, repeatedly asking detailed questions about healthcare facility procedures and the layout of the maternity unit. Additionally, the abductors often visit or surveil more than one hospital in a community to assess the level of security and to explore the infant population.
Heretofore, hospitals have taken reasonable precautions to prevent infant abduction, such as attaching corresponding identification bands to the mother and the infant, utilizing hospital staff to continuously monitor newborn nurseries and using video surveillance equipment to monitor newborn nurseries as well as the maternity unit. It has been found, however, that these measures do not prevent infant abductions from hospitals. It has also been found that due to the extreme emotional trauma of the victims of infant abductions, the potential liability to hospitals following infant abductions is substantial.
Need has therefore arisen for an improved system for preventing the unauthorized removal of babies from the maternity unit. A need has also arisen for a system that includes an identification band that may be attached to the infant that sends a signal if an abductor attempts to remove the band. A need has further arisen for a system that responds to the signal sent by the band by generating an audible or visual alarm or by communicating with additional subsystems to secure the maternity unit if a band has been tampered with or cut. A need has also arisen for a band that provides visual cues to indicate the operation mode of the band.